Valeriy Kryventsov: We were closer to victory

Sunday, December 11, 2016

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Mentor of Shakhtar U21 team gave his take on the match against Dynamo U21

- Two leading football schools in Ukraine were meeting. Both our guys and those from Kyiv have passed all stages of development, so in terms of the tactics they perfectly understood how to operate having possession of the ball, and what to do when the team are without the ball. Kyiv did not present us any surprises at all. We knew how they play, therefore we chose today the pattern, in which we deliberately at certain points allowed the opponents to have control of the ball and then, through our fast strikers, switched to counterattacking. We had some good chances to score both in the first half and after the break, but not everything worked in the decisive attacking phase. At the end of the match we earned a spot kick and must have open the scoring, but Oleksiy Zinkevych did not score. We do not blame him at all, on the contrary the whole team supported Oleksii. In such tense duel, it can happen to anyone, so we shouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Of course, it’s a pity that we didn’t managed to win today. The guys really wanted to leave for the break being in front, and they made every effort to make it happen. I think we were closer to victory.

- How can you explain such cautious performance on the part of both teams: was it due to a huge pressure of responsibility for the result, or they just analysed each other’s performance really well?
- Primarily, the result pressure affected it. I believe that today both sides did not show their best qualities. We know how Kyiv can attack, we also know our attacking strengths. But the cost of error in the match was great. I watched the actions of both our players and the opponent s – there was extreme caution in every episode. I am pleased with the fact that there was one team on the pitch, which is very important. After all, all 10 outfield players and the goalkeeper, plus a player who came off the bench - they played very wisely from a tactical point of view, fulfilling everything we asked them to do. But at the same time, the coaching staff got some good information. It was important for us to see the players in such a stressful meeting, involving a huge responsibility for the result, where it is important to prove yourself in some extreme situations. This gives us a true picture of those who we can recommend in a while for the first team.